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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  4. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. Have you found your soul ________________?
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  9. My father caught me by the ________________.
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. I'll be taking the ________________.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  21. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. shower — rain
  3. mate — to breed
  4. tube — a container
  5. capital — a city
  6. mate — a partner
  7. degree — temperature
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. arm — part of the body
  10. mate — a friend
  11. squash — the sport
  12. shower — to wash
  13. drill — the tool
  14. drill — a practice
  15. arm — a part of something
  16. capital — money
  17. squash — to crush
  18. tube — the underground
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. squash — the vegetable
  21. drill — army training
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. degree — an amount

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com